Yuri Kochiyama, a community activist and former member of Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-American Unity, emphatically told her audience that racism still exists in America in her speech on Saturday morning.
Kochiyama delivered the second keynote address, titled "Living a Life Committed to Justice," to more than 200 students, faculty and administrators in Webster Hall at the Society Organized Against Racism conference, which Dartmouth hosted over the weekend.
Kochiyama stressed the differences between "talking the talk and walking the walk" in being committed to a cause.
Kochiyama has been a community activist in Harlem, N.Y. since 1963. She has participated in the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War activities and efforts for reparations for Japanese Americans interned during World War II.
Kochiyama said she thinks it is sad young people have forgotten all that has been accomplished against racism.
"Jesse Jackson is frantically trying to fan the flames of the '60s to the young," Kochiyama said.
She told the audience it is important to realize although slavery was abolished racism was not.
"It was not along ago that hospitals, cemeteries ... even churches were not a haven for all," Kochiyama said.
"Today racism is evident in the inner city with its police brutality and cruel treatment of prisoners by prison guards," she said.
She said she was happy to see the diversity of the crowd gathered in Webster Hall "Activists are crossing their own color lines to fight against one goal -- injustice," Kochiyama said.
Kochiyama said the students in the audience are directly benefiting from the efforts of activists in the 1960s.
"Many doors were pried open, they had to be forced open because they would not open willingly," she said.
Kochiyama said some members of the Black Panthers, a radical black nationalist political party, have been in jail for more than 20 years and she thinks they should be considered political prisoners.
"Civil rights workers of all colors suffered shattered lives and broken homes as they fought for equity," she said. "It was the diversity of the people involved that strengthened the demands" for equality and justice.
Kochiyama spoke about the action northern college students took by going to the South to protest the injustice of segregation in the 1960s.
She said she is upset with recent government actions taken against affirmative action by the Republican-controlled Congress.
"Conservatism always reinforces racism," she said.
Kochiyama said she is disillusioned because "Clarence Thomas, the only black on the Supreme Court, cast the deciding vote giving Congress tighter control" over affirmative action.
Kochiyama said new anti-terrorist and anti-immigrant laws are causing unnecessary fear of foreigners.
Kochiyama asked the audience what the true goal of education should be. "Is the aim of education to better the individual or to reinforce those already in power?" she said.
Kochiyama said the signers of the Declaration of Independence who said all men are created equal were just "talking the talk."
"For all their lofty promises, the very ones who signed [the Declaration of Independence] are the ones who owned slaves," Kochiyama said. "They talked the talk but they didn't walk the walk."
She told the audience the United States is not the only country faced with racism.
"Racists are all over the world planting their seeds of hatred," Kochiyama said. "We must not let the roots of racism spread because it is contagious."
Kochiyama urged the members of the audience "don't ever give up. You are not alone. All over the world your counterparts are waging the same battle."
During a question and answer period following the speech Kochiyama discussed her experiences working with Malcolm X.
"While Malcolm X was alive, the media demonized him," Kochiyama said. "He was probably the warmest, most open person you could meet."
Galah Dahn, a student at Bowdoin College, said he thought Kochiyama was a very motivating speaker and agreed with her thoughts on police brutality.
"People might think racism is going away but it is not," Dahn said.
Brien Keller, a student from Rhode Island College, said "I thought the speech was very informative regarding the history of the civil rights movement."
Keller said he plans to take some new ideas from the speech and the workshops and implement them in his school.
The SOAR conference brought 240 students and faculty from 24 northeastern colleges and universities to the College to discuss issues of racism.
